(Note: The talk I refer to below.
Check the date.
And the time.
There’s a slim possibility you can catch it.
If you want to, that is).
The Talk.
I was asked to talk at an online festival this week.
At 9.30am on Tuesday 28th April, 2020.
In a ‘Thought for the Day’ kind of thing.
The Festival.
The festival was called ‘The Space In-Between’.
My talk was on the subject of, ‘Doing What You Are Born To Do‘.
(Here’s the link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/do-what-you-were-born-to).
And the festival was organised by the excellent Eleanor Tweddell of www.anotherdoor.co.uk.
My Brain.
My brain knew about this talk.
So the night before.
My brain set to work.
Trying to think of something neat.
Useful.
And (most of all) truthful.
For me to say.
One Thing.
As with most talks.
It is useful to think about the one thing you want people to remember about it.
It’s nice if the chat is dynamic and engaging, of course.
And interesting.
And upbeat.
And I knew that my talk was going to be about the fact that we only have one life.
And the balance between existing and excelling.
But I also knew that people tend to hook into just one thing when they hear a short talk.
One takeaway only.
So the night before.
As I snoozed.
My brain worked on what that one thing would be.
Brilliant.
Every day.
I send myself emails.
5 or 6 each day, actually.
Emails with ideas for 50odd.
Ideas for Always Wear Red.
And ideas for talks.
Sometimes.
These emails take me by surprise when I read them back.
Because I forget I’ve sent them.
And I forget what I’ve written.
And when I awoke on the morning of my talk.
I discovered that I had in fact sent myself an email that previous night.
Just before I dropped off to sleep.
As I was trying to think of the one thing that I wanted people to remember about my talk.
My talk about the fact that we only have one life.
And the balance between existing and excelling.
The Email.
Here’s the email:
Be very careful.
Be very careful that in this short life.
You don’t waste time making money.
When you could have been doing brilliant work.
Thank You.
Thank you brain.
I like that quote.
And if there is just one thing that I want people to remember about my talk.
This is it.
